How wide? How much? I am guessing that the Sigma 10-20mm at £370 is out of your budget? I have it, it's great f8 to f16 or so. Anything good that is wider than the 18mm end of your 18-70mm lens is going to be expensive. Even a Minolta 20mm f2.8 prime lens is rare and expensive.

I also have the Sigma 24mm f2.8 prime lens and that's good. Got it from eBay between £60-100. Tends to be much cheaper than the Minolta 24mm f2.8 prime lens and is just as good. Neither of these are "wide" on your A200 though, I bought the Sigma 24mm for use inside without a flash, not landscape shots.

On a budget you'd be better off trying to live with the 18-70mm and see how it goes.

Apologies, spot the SLR newbie... I pretty much set the camera to Auto and point and shoot! I have a compact camera as well but got the SLR as the quality was considerably better.

As for how wide, I take scenic pictues but find the 18-70 lens doesn't capture as much as I'd like. That probably doesn't help you does it, as I'm such a novice I was just looking for a lens that got that bit more in it.

It looks as though w ide angle lens a budget is not going to happen? What is the cheapest wide angle lens that will suffice (ie just capture more width on the scenic shots)?

I've been looking at the sSigma lense - I won't be buying it just yet as I just bought the Beercan which is a nice addition I must say. Not really used the Beercan at all yet but I was on Holiday over the last two weeks and went around england and was using the kit lense alot - just need to get used to using it on the manual settings.

You can get variations of the Cosina AF 19-35mm which is a full fram lens. Not top shelf, but still no slouch. Ffordes currently have one for £49.99 and they come in silver and black, but if you're after a cropped sensor WA lens, then the Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro or Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 would suit much better than the kit lens. The alternative would be to go down the Minolta line of full frame lenses for something like a 24 or 28-135mm or 24-105mm (D). Just account for the 1.5x crop factor.

I always check the Onestop-Digital site first for price comparison, though I've used them twice and they are a first class outfit. Do buy the globally accepted Mack warranty they sell. Other than that, pop over to Dyxum.com which is the Sony/Minolta owners bible website, and they have plenty of desirable and/or affordable gear in their classifieds section. I've bought truck loads via Dyxum.